Stand up!

Acts 14:10: Paul called out in a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet." He jumped up and began to walk about.

In context, this passage is about Paul and Barnabas fleeing persecution and going to Lystra to share the Good News of Jesus. There's nothing like a healing miracle to get people's attention. There's a lot of detail given in this story--the people spoke Lycaonian and worshipped the Greek gods. They thought, witnessing the miracle, that Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Hermes. There was a priest of Zeus near by ready to sacrifice some oxen at a temple. Paul used their stunted knowledge about their own religion and the natural world to tell them the Good News.

Do you ever see anything in Scripture that you've never noticed before? I read this as a message to us and the churches in this time of fear and weakness that has crippled us.  Not just stand up, but stand up straight. Not on your knees begging for permission from the government, but stand up on your feet ready for business! Let’s kick butt; we’ve been crippled long enough.

Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine

Last night I watched Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine, pt. 2 of 6, on WOSU. It seems to be quite faithful to church teachings (at least this segment) and I enjoyed seeing the places we've visited (tour with our church group in 2009).

On to Antioch and Tarsus, birthplace of Paul

On Monday March 9th we docked at Mersin, Turkey, around 7 a.m., boarded our buses with box lunches, and then reboarded the ship at Iskenderun, Turkey. For this visit, see Acts 11:19-26, Acts 13-18, and Acts 22:3.


Here I am at St. Paul's house in Tarsus, which is under glass. Tarsus was the most important commercial port in Cilicia, and according to an internet site a few decades before Christ, the Romans granted it the status of a free city with certain privileges. How clever of God to chose a Jew and a Roman citizen to spread the faith. We gathered in a public square near by for another performance by our Greek actor playing Paul.


Here's my husband at St. Paul's Well, in a courtyard believed to be the site of his house (these are approximate, but how far could we be?) And now we've walked where millions of Christians have come over the years.


Tradition says that these caves were the homes of early Christians. Our guide (a Muslim) told us The Cave Church of St. Peter is the very first Christian church, and this is where Christians were first called by this name (Acts 11:26). It is located just outside Antioch (modern Antakya) Turkey, the base of many of Paul's missionary journeys and probably where the Gospel of Matthew was written.




Worship services are still held here on certain holy days.

Continuing through Turkey, Aspendos Theatre and Perga

On Sunday March 8 we docked at Antalya, a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey and the capital of the province. It's a blend of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman cultures and architecture. This area corresponds to the Biblical lands of ancient Pamphylia to the east and Lycia to the west. Here we boarded our buses and drove to the Aspendos Theatre, where we enjoyed an actor performing as Paul, and the beautiful ruins of Perga.

The Book of Acts in the New Testament really comes alive after a visit to Turkey.

13Then Paul and his men set sail from Paphos and arrived in Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and went back to Jerusalem. 14They left Perga and arrived in Antioch in Pisidia. On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue leaders asked them, “Brothers, if you have any message of encouragement for the people, you may speak.”

16Then Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said:

“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen! 17The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made them a great people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with a public display of power he led them out of there. 18After he had put up with them for 40 years in the wilderness, 19he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan. Then God gave their land to the Israelites as an inheritance 20for about 450 years.

“After that, he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. 21When they demanded a king, God gave them Kish’s son Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. 22Then God removed Saul and made David their king, about whom he testified, ‘I have found that David, the son of Jesse, is a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’ 23It was from this man's descendants that God, as he promised, brought to Israel a Savior, who is Jesus. 24Before Jesus’ appearance, John had already preached a baptism of repentance to all the people in Israel. 25When John was finishing his work, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the Messiah. No, but he is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.’

26“My brothers, descendants of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, it is to us[l] that the message of this salvation has been sent. 27For the people who live in Jerusalem and their leaders, not knowing who Jesus[m] was, condemned him and so fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28Although they found no reason to sentence him to death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29When they had finished doing everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb. 30But God raised him from the dead, 31and for many days he appeared to those who had come with him to Jerusalem from Galilee. These are now his witnesses to the people. 32We are telling you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33he has fulfilled for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.’ 34God raised him from the dead, never to experience decay, as he said, ‘I will give you the holy promises made to David.’ 35In another Psalm he says, ‘You will not let your Holy One experience decay.’ 36For David, after he had served God's purpose in his own generation, died and was buried with his ancestors, and so he experienced decay. 37However, the man whom God raised did not experience decay.

Aspendos on the river Eurymedon could be reached by ship and is famous for its theater with magnificent accoustics.

The actor who played Paul performed monologues based on his writings at various places along our tour.
Perga was apparently on the sea in ancient times, but is now inland. It had been under control of the Persians, then Alexander, then later Rome. Artemis was an important goddess (Pergaia) there appearing on coins. Paul journeyed to Perga from Cyprus continuing on to Antioch, returning later. During the reign of Constantine, Perga became an important center of Christianity.



Although I don't have a photo of her, that's our Muslim guide, Tuba, with the white umbrella. She was outstanding--excellent English and great sensitivity for our faith and always holding to the Biblical text for her script.

Perga has been under excavation by Turkish archaelogists since 1946--at least I think that's where this was taken. Hmm--almost as long as me.

You also can't trust those Christmas carols

Some years ago I was told--probably during a sermon--that there weren't three wise men--there were three types of gifts to honor the new born king. So a 19th century minister came up with "We three kings of Orient are/ bearing gifts we traverse afar. . ." Then during Advent our senior pastor preached on the meaning of the carols, and I discovered the Bible doesn't say the angels sang. Nope. They said. Kind of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? We think we're singing right along with the angels, and they weren't even humming! Also, the Bible doesn't say Mary travelled on a donkey either. Wow, that ruins a lot of Christmas cards and pagents, doesn't it?

Then this week I was listening to Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J. preach about St. Paul. It's apparently the 2000 anniversary of his birth--although they don't know exactly--and there was a special series on the sacraments. I listened to the one on baptism, and learned all sorts of things. Did you know Paul's letters in the New Testament are arranged by size? I didn't. The longest is first, so to look at what he said chronologically about baptism he cited 1 Cor 6:9-11, 12:12-13, Gal. 3:23-27, Romans 6:3, then Col. 2. Also he said St. Paul never spoke about Hell, never condemned anyone to go there, but Jesus spoke a lot about it. I guess I'd never thought about it before, and to think Paul gets all the bad press for being cranky. Along the way he mentioned that 8,000,000 Muslims in Africa convert to Christianity each year, and there's been a large increase among the Kurds. The sermon is about 48 minutes, and quite interesting, although I'm not sure why. He must have quite a following because he has his own web site and program on EWTN.

Given in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Birmingham, AL on September 4, 2008. Part I: Baptism in Saint Paul's Writings

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St. Paul to Richard Dawkins

Yesterday when clicking through the channels I saw Richard Dawkins for about 10 seconds--probably a C-SPAN rerun. Nothing new here--someone or other has been saying the same stuff for 2,000 years. Including Paul, the author of most of the New Testament. He too was an educated man persecuting Christians, probably saying the same things as Dawkins, although he didn't have the benefit of C-SPAN to spread his views, or the internet for people to down load it.

Here's Paul writing to Titus, which just happens to be the Oct. 28 selection in my One Year Bible (NIV), but he could just as well be writing to Dawkins (all Christians could be praying that Dawkins have a Damascus Road experience). He would be a terrific Paul Jr.:

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and peasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."